2023: count us out of Obi's Presidential endorsement Sultan of Sokoto, Sanusi

2023: count us out of Obi's Presidential endorsement Sultan of Sokoto, Sanusi 

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, and the 14th Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi ll, have denied viral statements attributed to them on social media of endorsing the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi.

In one of the doctored statements, the former Emir of Kano, purportedly made comments on the three major presidential candidates in the 2023 general elections, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and Labour Party’s Peter Obi.

In the statement, Peter Obi was described as the only selfless person of the three. The comment on Obi goes thus: “He doesn’t need your money for anything. He wants to be President to reset things and lay the foundation for systemic governance in future.”

The writer alleged that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had “milked Nigeria well enough systematically and just wants to answer President by all means”.

Former governor of Lagos, Bola Tinubu was described as “fantastically corrupt”. “He just wants to fulfill his lifetime political ambition of answering President, even if he dies the next day after answering President,” the writer added on Tinubu.

In another statement being circulated on Social media, it was claimed that the Sultan of Sokoto promised to mobilize five million votes for Peter Obi.

“I will mobilize 5 million votes in the North for Peter Obi, I have never believed in an Igbo man the way I believe in Peter Obi – Sultan” the headline of the post read.

However, in a statement on Monday, June 20, 2022, the chief of staff to the deposed emir, Munir Sunusi Bayero, said the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor did not author the article.

The statement said, “Our attention has been drawn to an article circulating the online media space analysing the motives of the three presidential candidates in the 2023 elections.

“We would like to emphatically state that this was not authored by His Highness Khalifa Muhammad Sanusi II as is being widely attributed.” 

Bayero further clarified that the former CBN governor did not bear Sanusi Lamido Sanusi any longer.

 The statement added, “Consequently, given the need to set the records straight, we hereby state for the benefit of those unaware that the Khalifa is not officially referred to as Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, but as HH Muhammad Sanusi II.

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“We also take this opportunity to encourage readers to scrutinise the information they find online to identify false and misleading information purported to have come from eminent personalities and thought leaders. 

“While we restate that we have no affiliation to the article itself in any way, we staunchly continue to place our faith and trust in Allah (Subhaanahu wa Ta’aala) to continue guiding His Highness as an elder statesman in his socio-economic advocacy for all Nigerians, Africans and humanity in general,” the statement said.

Similarly, a fact check has revealed that the statement which quoted the Sultan of Sokoto to be false.

The screenshot shows that the post may have emanated from a blogpost. However, the nameplate of the blog is not visible